Over the past few days, I've been flagging recipes left and right for next week's big meal. Per usual, I'm salivating over everything in Bon Appetit, plus some delicious caramels from Martha Stewart. Beyond the food, there's also the table to consider. Today, I tested out a pair of ideas that cost me next to nothing. To create the feather placecard below, I traced the shape of a feather onto a scrap of black leather using a gold paint pen (a pen or pencil wouldn't show up). Then I cut out the shape—including side slits that give it a feathery look—and wrote my name in the center using the paint pen.

Here, I used a toy turkey (I got mine from Michaels for $3), some gold spray paint—plus a name tag. I coated the toy twice with spray paint, and cut out a tag from scrap paper. Once the turkey was dry, I tied the tag around one of its legs.